gt_croz

Many of the TravelBuzz audience has conquered an impressive array of countries in their travels. Frequently I hear discussions in this forum of London, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, etc.

Rarely does a thread erupt regarding off-the-beaten-track places like Addis Ababa, Ulaan Baatar, Managua, etc...

So I pose the question: What's the most exotic/obscure place that you've ever visited outside of your home country? Any exciting stories associated with that destination are also welcome

wahooflyer

Wonderful topic, gt_croz!

I've never been anywhere particularly exotic or obscure outside the U.S. I'd have to say the closest I've come would be the Aran Islands off the coast of Ireland. When I was a young child, my parents and I rented a cottage every summer near Doolin, on the west coast of Ireland. We took the ferry out to the rural Aran Islands a few times.

In the next few years, I'd like to visit Afghanistan (only the capital Kabul, though, due to safety concerns elsewhere in the country), as I work with a number of Afghans and Iranians and they are some of the most hospitable people I have ever met. Afghanistan is a beautiful country, although much of it has been destroyed. And I'd enjoy the obscurity factor because few tourists venture there, though there are a number of Americans working in Kabul.

ColoBill1

When I was in the Air Force, my last job was working in an office here in COS that monitored the contractor that manned and operated the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line radar sites along and above the Arctic Circle in Alaska, Canada and Greenland.

There were four sites in Greenland, one on each of the west and east coasts, and two inland that were placed on pilings that were embedded in the Greenland ice cap. These two on pilings actually moved and rotated as the ice flowed ever so slowly. Also, each year they would have to be jacked up a few feet to compensate for the additional depth of ice that formed. Every number of years they would have to be moved and put on newly installed pilings, as the old ones would become torqued through movement.

However, as far as my most obscure place I've ever visited, I would have to say the DEW LIne radar site on the west coast of Greenland. It sat quite elevated on top of a mountain. I remember going outside by myself to find the silence and view to be ablsolutely awesome.

platbrownguy

In September, I had the pleasure of spending a little over two amazing weeks backpacking across Madagascar - definitely one of the ends of the earth.

From the time I landed in Antananarivo, it was as if I'd stepped back into the colonial era... I took 22-to-a-van taxi-brousses around the country, saw the famed lemurs, baobab trees, and lagoons, and took a train ride from Fianarantsoa (in the center of the country) to Manakara, on the eastern coast - this 165-mile ride took 11 hours . I stayed in $6 a night suites and $10 a night cabins, and even played Texas Hold'em with 3 German backpackers in a expats' hangout. At one point I hired a chauffeur for $4 a day.

Perhaps the best part of it all was paying $2 to a local guide and fisherman, who took me and the Germans a couple miles down the beach, went into the water with his pirogue (dugout canoe), and came back with a cage full of langostines! We grilled them over a fire with onions, boiled rice, and had a feast with a bottle of Malagasy rum... good times.

Other exotic-ish places I've been include Peru, Bermuda, Macau, Malin Head and the Inishowen Peninsula of Ireland, and Bryce Canyon National Park.

I had a trip planned in which I was going to go to Uzbekistan and follow the Great Silk Road out to Samarkand and Bukhara, take the old Pamir Road through the mountains of Tajikistan from Osh to Kashgar, and wind my way through Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan - this may or may not have been preceded by flying into Baku (Azerbaijan) and taking a boat across the Caspian sea to Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan), contingent on getting a Turkmen transit visa. I had to postpone the trip but will hopefully take it in September.

If anyone's interested, my photosite is here.


Hey wahooflyer... while I haven't made it out to the Aran Islands, I did stop at a pub in Doolin while touring the Burren area. Nice country out there, that's for sure.

l etoile

I've sailed into a lot of obscure ports on uninhabited islands throughout the world. I forget the names of many - I'd have to look through my logs - but it is wonderful to go to places without airports and that don't see ferrys or, heaven forbid, cruise ships.

rqd

A consulting gig in Dhahran.

fallinasleep

platbrownguy, would love to hear more about your trip through Madagascar. Have you written anything else up on it?

As for your Silk Road itinerary, that's a trip I had planned in the summer of 1998 (almost exact routing except I would have routed via Iran and Turkey rather than Azerbaijan), but I only managed to complete the first half of the trip (overland from St Petersburg to Xian (the historical start of the Silk Road)). Was ready to return to Istanbul (got all my 'stan visas lined up) but decided to take an easier southern routing after some geo-political events. Try to pick up some basic Russian if you take the trip in September.

Finally made it to Kashgar in 2001 though (overland routing from Beijing to Jiayuguan to Dunhuang to Turpan to Urumqi), and the Sunday Market there is simply amazing, without any comparison in the world, and well worth the effort.

holtju2

ROI - Rovaniemi on the Arctic Circle in Finland. I boarded MSY where it was about 30 celcius and landed ar ROI where it was -35 celcius. Quite a difference!

Athena53

We'll be in the Orkneys at this time next week! We're planning to do the flight from Kirkwall to Westray and Papa Westray.

Next destination may be Malta but that's not booked yet.

Canarsie

The answer to that question is easy!

The most obscure place to which I have been is the home of obscure2k!

==========================

Actually, it would probably be the Korhogo area (including the city), in the northern region of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in western Africa.

I have also been to Malta and Cyprus, but those countries are not that obscure.

I have also been to the state of North Dakota...

ROW2Aisle

Here is a picture of the place and it takes a month to learn to pronounce the name

cejkwj

I'd have to agree. Did some sailing with family in the carribean and while the areas we went were not that exotic they were remote. Like Anegada (North of Virgin Gorda).



cejkwj

richard

Clovis, New Mexico

SchmeckFlyer

I'm not sure which of these is more obscure...

-Being in the middle of the Kalahari desert in Botswana, 120km via dirt track to the closest human settlement; the thunder storms all around us were incredibly beautiful.

-Working in southern Sudan and northern Uganda (Moyo & Adjumani).

-Learning to scuba dive in Villanculos about halfway up the Mozambique coast.

-Camping on Shi-Shi beach on the northwest tip of the Olympic peninsula (well, not so terribly "exotic" but was a 2 day hike in from the south).

bcmatt

The best I can manage is TOF (Tomsk) in Russia. So obscure, not even the Trans-Siberian Railway passes through it. Although it does have a womble named after it, so it can't be that obscure!